The NFL has taken a big dent out of Marshawn Lynch’s Skittles budget.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the league has fined the veteran tailback $50,000 for refusing to make himself available to the media throughout the season.
Players are required to be available after each game and once during each week. The league typically takes action only when one or more members of the media complain about a player who refuses to talk.
In this case, a fine of $50,000 actually seems a little light, if it’s true that Lynch has declined all season long to speak. But since the media apparently hadn’t complained about Lynch until recently, the league didn’t whack him for 30-plus separate violations.
Past players to be fined for not talking include Randy Moss. After Moss was fined $25,000 for refusing to speak to the Minnesota media during his abbreviated second stint with the team, Moss declared that he’d talk -- but that he’d answer only his own questions. He was cut not long thereafter, avoiding a showdown over whether a monologue with the media would be sufficient.
In 2012, Moss declined to speak throughout the season before talking a blue streak during Super Bowl week. The media apparently didn’t complain about Moss not talking, possibly because he didn’t do much last year for anyone in the media to want to talk to him about.
With the Seahawks preparing to host a divisional-round playoff game, Lynch likely now faces even bigger fines if he refuses to speak, especially if the Seahawks advance to the NFC title game and then to the Super Bowl.